Page 36 - A Helping Hand for Refugees

Muslims have to pay taxes simply to go from one village to another.
They are not allowed out after 9:00 in the evening, even to visit rela-

tives or neighbors, without police permission.
Muslims are not allowed to build concrete homes; they can only

live in wooden huts and even these meager dwellings belong to the
state. They are not allowed to have landlines or mobile phones nor can
they own motor vehicles.

They have no right to a defense when a crime is committed, and
are imprisoned straight away. The police or military can raid their
homes on no grounds. They can be arrested arbitrarily for no reason.

The elimination of Muslims in Myanmar, ruled by a military junta
between 1962 and 2011, has literally become a policy of state. Power
passed to a supposedly democratic administration, still under the con-
trol of the communist military junta, in the wake of elections in which
wide-ranging fraud took place. As a result, the same military junta is
continuing with the same policy through a puppet government. The
aim is to eliminate the Muslim population by annihilating it or forcing

it into exile.
To date, the persecution of Muslims in Rakhine has been portrayed

as an ethnic conflict attributed to fanatical Buddhists. The fact is how-
ever, as everyone knows, that because of their beliefs, Buddhists are
simple, harmonious and peace-loving people who strongly avoid
killing. It is gangs and terror organizations affiliated to the communist
secret state that are now known to be the real culprits. The terror group
known as "Lion Thein" used to be responsible for the bulk of the vio-
lence and killing, although the "969 Movement" has begun assuming
responsibility for the recent wave of violence.

The members of these gangs generally consist of militants from
Myanmar who have received communist guerrilla training in Thailand

and China. The striking similarity to ethnic cleansing against Muslims
in East Turkestan suggests that communist China – Myanmar's friend
and ally – is likely also behind the scenes.

34 A Helping Hand for Refugees